Forum Discussion

PMancoll's avatar
PMancoll
New Contributor II
3 years ago

"Cannot execute step because the prior workflow step is not completed"

We have Workflow A, and Workflow B.   We get an error when the loadCube step in workflow B, when Workflow A is in Validation step.  The error we get is "Cannot execute step because the prior workflow step is not completed. . (WP#WorkflowA.Import:S#Actual:T#2022M1)"   The name the actual workflow has been changed to protect the innocent.

 Our question is:  what is causing this issue and how do we fix it?  It's not clear in the documentation what exactly triggers this error message.  The parameters passed back imply that one cannot load to the same scenario and time if another workflow to that scenario and time is still open.   

WorkflowA and WorkflowB are loading to the same scenario and time, but to different accounts. 

Import
Workflow
  • ChrisLoran's avatar
    ChrisLoran
    Valued Contributor
    3 years ago

    You don't mention if both workflow steps are loading to the same Entity.  I am assuming they are, based on the error message.
    If they are, and the ONLY difference is that Workflows A and B target different accounts but within the same data unit, then you should assign Workflow Channels to the Import profiles, and assign these channels also to the accounts.
    That way , the import process will know that you are targeting only a subset of accounts each time, and it knows exactly which subset of accounts to clear each time.  Otherwise, how does OneStream know which accounts need to be cleared in Profile A, or Profile B.

    Please refer to the Design & Reference Guide, chapter "Using Workflow Channels" for more information.

  • Nokhez's avatar
    Nokhez
    New Contributor II
    3 years ago

    Hi Chris, Thanks for the response. I am working on the same issue with PMancoll, we are already using workflow channels and below is our analysis.

    • Workflow A and Workflow B both have different Workflow Channel defined.
      a. All the accounts that appear in Workflow A have workflow channel set as 'Standard'
      b. All the accounts that appear in Workflow B have workflow channel set as 'NoDataLock'
    • Workflow A and Workflow B both have Workflow Channel set to 'AllChannelInput' in the workflow profile settings (and we can't change it as we are using workflow channels with UD dimension and both the workflow loads same set of UD).
    • On a separate note we don't have this issue other way around. i.e. If Workflow B is in validate step, we are still able to load Workflow A without any errors. But as mentioned earlier Workflow B won't complete if Workflow A is in validate step.

    Can you think of any other place we might be having dependency defined between workflows?

  • PMancoll's avatar
    PMancoll
    New Contributor II
    3 years ago

    Update:  We confirmed that the dependency was because the "Prior Step"  workflow had certain entities marked in its "Entity Assignment" , which caused the error in the other workflow when that workflow had data for those entities.  Because of that, and also because we are using workflow channels on one of the UD's, there doesn't seem to be a way to remove the dependency.   Accordingly, we are pursuing a solution whereby the upstream/prior workflow does not get left in a partially completed state by the daily script which was causing this.

  • Brooks's avatar
    Brooks
    New Contributor II
    2 years ago

    We are having the same issues, except there are no A and B.  Workflow A appears to go without a hitch from Import through validation, but when we try to load the cube we get an error stating that the prior step is not complete, yet the prior step references in the import, which is complete.  How do we fix this?  I've tried finding a way to kill the task but cannot.  Extra wrinkle, it is only happening with one time period's workflow.